Let’s recap: even if BC had an LNG industry today, it would be losing money on every tankerload sent to Asia. The people of BC would be paying higher prices for the gas they consume, while getting negligible public return for all that publicly owned gas. GHG emissions would go up instead of down, and there would be very few jobs.

Notes: Marc Lee argues cancelation of LNG project in BC by Petronas is a good thing because the investments only made sense at higher LNG gas prices, and because of all the negative ramifications for the province.

“The projects mean 39,000 jobs to British Columbia during construction with another 75,000 full-time jobs created once in operation,” the Liberals said. Moreover, the platform said, the LNG jobs would be high-paying, in the $100,000-plus range. At the same time, “we can create $1-trillion in economic activity and create the B.C. Prosperity Fund with $100-billion over 30 years.” The platform went on the state that “the government has set a goal of at least three LNG facilities online by 2020.”

None of this has happened. Similar fantasies could be found in Alberta when oil prices were running above US$100. Alberta would have the lowest taxes in Canada, no provincial debt, and the richest public services. It would be a haven of super-prosperity, and the centre of the new Canada, displacing the old Canada of Ontario and Quebec. Today, Alberta is desperate to diversify its economy.

There will, of course, continue to be investments in the oil and gas industry. But this is now a humbled industry and our future strengths will have to be found elsewhere. That is the challenge.

Notes: Crane asks what if Canada won’t actually be an energy super power, what does that mean for the communities that were supposed to find employment and jobs? What might an anthropology of these projects that never were look like?

“The CEO of one of Canada’s biggest natural gas producers says “government dithering” played a role in the cancellation of a massive liquefied natural gas project in British Columbia. “They [Petronas] kept getting held up ...all levels of government were trying to squeeze more money out of them,” said Mike Rose, head of Tourmaline, among the largest gas producers in Western Canada.

Notes: Industry analysts blame BC government for failure the LNG, and argue that prices will rise in the future, with the US route as an export possibility.

NBC’s Dr. Margot Parkes and a team of researchers and partners from across Canada have secured a five-year research grant focused on working together across sectors to prevent adverse impacts from resource development, with specific emphasis on rural, remote and Indigenous communities. The study will receive $2 million from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
Notes: Press release from UNBC about the ECHO research project at UNBC, working on preventing adverse impacts on rural, remote and Indigenous communities from resource development.

“You have to normalize resistance. You have to normalize it in every aspect of what you’re doing,” Suzanne Patles, in Water Warriors.

Elsipogtog First Nation – The story of Indigenous people, Acadians, and Anglophones in one of New Brunswick’s poorest areas successfully defending their homes and communities from the ravages of shale gas development is now the subject of a new documentary film.

Notes: Water Warriors is a 22-minute short film that documents the resistance to fracking in Kent County by Elsipogtog First Nation and allies in 2013.

Heavy rains and winds did not dampen the commitment of the approximately 80 people gathered to protect their communities and the Bay of Fundy from the proposed Energy East pipeline on June 17 in Red Head, New Brunswick. The rally and picnic, organized by the Red Head Anthony’s Cove Preservation Association, was the final “Hands Across The Water” event held in the province in June.

Notes: Article describing a protest on the Bay of Funds against the Energy East Pipeline project, which expresses fears from spies and the impact of super tankers on the Bay of Funds written my Mark D’Arcy the Energy East Campaigner for the Council of Canadians.

A march will be held on Saturday, June 10th in Fredericton across the Nashwaak River, 1:00pm–1:45pm. Starting at 1:00pm, people will meet at the gravel parking area beside 955 Union Street (borders the Nashwaak River and is just below the overpass of the Walking Train Bridge), and then march across the trail bridge over the Nashwaak River.

This march is part of the ‘Hands Across The Water’ events held in June along the proposed tar sands Energy East pipeline route in New Brunswick. This event is organized by the Fredericton chapter of the Council of Canadians.

Notes: Describes a march that would take place on June 17, 2017 from the walking train bridge across the Nashwaak, on the issue of energy east and the Sisson mine

The ownership and control of land by rich elites at the expense of ordinary people is fundamental to understanding the inequality crisis that has engulfed the world. Latin America is a prime example, where extreme concentration of land has been central to its very high levels of inequality. Oxfam’s new report reveals that in recent years this has actually gotten worse. Amazingly, across the Latin American continent, one percent of farms now cover more productive land than all other farms put together.

Notes: Blog post by Oxfam International which summarizes some of the contemporary issues around land and inequality in Latin America, with reference to a new report on land, power, and inequality in Latin America.

A Maliseet First Nations chief says the New Brunswick government threatened to cancel lucrative tax deals with her band and other Indigenous communities if they didn’t sign an agreement on the Sisson mine. Chief Patricia Bernard of the Madawaska Maliseet First Nation says she doesn’t support the proposed mine, but her band couldn’t risk losing the money it gets from provincial gas, tobacco and sales taxes collected at its Grey Rock commercial development.

Notes: Malisset First Nations Chief claims that the provincial government threatened to cancel tax deals if they did no sign accommodations agreement. The article outlines the importance of tax revenues, but the agreement does not mean support.

The proposed Sisson tungsten and molybdenum mine near Stanley received federal environmental approval last week, but has triggered a $3-million bonus the province agreed to pay to six Maliseet First Nations—even if the mine was never built.

Notes: CBC article that describes the accommodation agreement with Maliseet First Nations as a bonus, but the company itself notes the project might not go ahead because of low tungsten and molybdenum prices.

Notes: The letter raises concerns about inaccuracies in the June 26, 2017 article “Sisson mine approval triggers $3M bonus for 6 Maliseet First Nations” by Robert Jones published by CBC, and contextualizes the Sisson Mine Agreement noting it does not provide Maliseet support for the Mine, as to this day, most of the Maliseet communities and our members oppose the Sisson Mine.

While there are diverse environmental issues that affect communities throughout Colombia, the effect of the damage on the majority of afro-descendant and indigenous regions of the Pacific and La Guajira Departments is alarming. Here are some key cases of concern:

Notes: Questions from WOLA to the Luis Gilberto Murillo, Colombia’s Minister of the Environment and former governor of the Chocó, about La Guajira and impacts of coal, oil palm, and agricultural crops on environment, and the Colombian Pacific and impacts of gold mining and coca cultivation, with recommendations of guaranteeing access tower, to address mercury contamination, to open dialogue with afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities, and to implement sustainable coca cultivation.

The six Maliseet First Nations in New Brunswick have reached a multimillion-dollar financial deal with the provincial government that clears the way for the Sisson mine project north of Fredericton to proceed.

“When the Oka Crisis happened, it was supposed to be a wake-up call, and although certain things changed (Kanesatake got some of its land back, the golf course expansion was halted and the situation put Indigenous rights to the forefront), there is still much to work on, together.”

On June 23, former Presidents of Colombia Álvaro Uribe and Andrés Pastrana announced that their parties, the Democratic Center and the Conservative Party, were joining forces to form a “great coalition,” just as campaigning for 2018 elections revs up. The announcement came almost a full year before the elections, but the union now allows the two politicians—both critics of President Juan Manuel Santos’ peace process with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)—to begin to corral mostly right-wing voter support behind a single presidential candidate and start to give some definition to a crowded field with several dozen declared and likely candidates from across the political spectrum.

Daniel Tubb

I am an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of New Brunswick Fredericton. I research economic and environmental anthropology and resource extraction in Colombia and New Brunswick. I am writing a book about gold mining in Colombia’s northwest, which uses ethnography to explore the informal economy of a gold rush.